The effects of human population density on trophic interactions are contingent upon latitude
Fecha
2024-04-23
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Editor
Wiley
Resumen
Aim
Global-scale studies are necessary to draw general conclusions on how trophic interactions vary with urbanization and to explore how the effects of urbanization change along latitudinal gradients. We predict that the intensity of trophic interactions decreases in response to urbanization (quantified by human population density). Since trophic interactions are more intense at lower latitudes, we also expect major impacts of urbanization at higher latitudes, where base levels are essentially lower.
Location
Global (881 study sites).
Time period
2000–2021.
Major taxa studied
Birds, arthropods and woody plants.
Methods
We compiled global data on insect herbivory and bird predation from studies that employed similar methods and fitted generalized linear mixed models to test how these trophic interactions vary with human population density, latitude and their interactions.
Results
The intensity of herbivory and predation decreased with an increase in human population density at lower latitudes. Surprisingly, it remained unaffected at intermediate latitudes and even increased at higher latitudes.
Main conclusions
The observed patterns may be attributed to local climate changes in urban areas, such as the Urban Heat Island effect, which disrupts thermal stability in the tropics while increasing niche availability at polar latitudes
Descripción
This study was supported by project PCIN-2016-150 (GILES) from the Spanish Ministries of Economy and Competitiveness and Science and Technology. During the development of this study, JAH was supported by a 2-year Ph.D. grant from the Community of Madrid Government. LC was partly supported by projects PID2019-105064GB-I00 and REMEDINAL TE-CM (S2018/EMT-4338). EM was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (19-28126X). MVK was supported by the Academy of Finland (projects 276671, 311929 and 316182)
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Citación
Hernández-Agüero, J. A., Ruiz-Tapiador, I., Garibaldi, L. A., Kozlov, M. V., Mäntylä, E., Nacif, M. E., Salinas, N., & Cayuela, L. (2024). The effects of human population density on trophic interactions are contingent upon latitude. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 33, e13849. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13849
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